Frank Lampard - diamond geezer?
By Dean Mears
Updated Friday, 9th October 2009
Move Frank back, Carlo
Frank Lampard is one of the great midfielders of all time, he has scored 100 goals in 5 seasons, which is a very impressive scoring rate from a central midfielder.
However the new system employed by Carlo Ancelotti means Frank has been located in the final third of the pitch, instead of dropping deep and dictating play, and making the famous late runs into the box where he gets so many of this goals.
He is instead receiving the ball with his back goal and ultimately he is having to play the back and cannot make any defence splitting through balls, or long range shots where he is so deadly.
The ball is played back either to Ballack, Mikel or Essien, who don't have that Lampard eye for a pass, or a Lampard style long-range shot.
So far this season, Lampard has scored just 1 goal. Compare that to 2005-2006 where he scored 5 goals, or 2006-2007 where he scored 4 goals in as many games.
And the solitary Lampard goal this year has come from the penalty spot, so remarkably, a player who has scored 20 goals a season for last 5 seasons, hasn't managed a goal from open play this year.
Some teams pick players around their star man, Geovanni at Hull last season, some teams have so many top quality players some are left on the bench, Carlos Tevez at
Manchester United last season.
However Frank is a player Chelsea cannot afford to lose, and at the start of last season when Inter Milan tabled a £8m, an offer about £40m short of Frank's value, especially in today's transfer climate, I was praying we didn't make another huge transfer market mistake.
One of the best things about Chelsea however, is the solution to this problem, I personally feel Ballack's legs, like Jamie Carragher's, are one or two seconds behind his brain, and his position in the team is lost, Frank is dropped into a deeper role, and Deco or Joe Cole drop into the attacking midfield role.
This allows another quality playmaker in the team, and Frank can return his normal box to box midfield play, and turn his 20 goals a season in the last 5 seasons, into 20 goals in last the 6 seasons.
And one final thing, it's Lampard over Gerrard any day of the week.
